Wendell Barnhouse is a nationally-known and respected columnist who has spent over 20 years covering collegiate athletics. He has reported from 25 Final Fours and more than three dozen bowl games and has written about the Big 12 and its schools since the conference's beginning. Barnhouse will be updating the Big 12 Insider on happenings and behind-the-scenes information about the conference.

ESPN.com's Mark Schlabach points out that Baylor is on pace to break nearly a dozen NCAA single-season records, including:

• Most offensive yards per game, which was set by Houston in 1989 with 624.9 yards. Baylor is averaging 718.4 yards of offense per game and surpassed 700 yards in all but two contests. The Bears set a Big 12 record with 864 yards in a 73-42 win over West Virginia on Oct. 5. Oregon also is on pace to break the NCAA record with 632.1 yards of offense per game.

• The Bears are on pace to finish the season with 9,339 yards of offense in 13 games, almost 1,000 yards more than the NCAA single-season record of 8,387 set by Houston in 14 games in 2011. The Ducks are on pace to finish with 8,949 yards of offense in 14 games.

• Baylor is averaging 9.1 yards per offensive play, which is higher than the NCAA record of 8.6 yards per play set by Hawaii in 2006. The Ducks are averaging 8.1 yards per play.

• The Bears are on pace to break the NCAA record of 56 points per game, set by the 1944 Army team, which won a national championship and featured future Heisman Trophy winners Felix "Doc" Blanchard and Glenn Davis. Baylor is on pace to score 830 points, which would shatter the NCAA 13-game record of 652 points set by Texas in 2005 and even the 14-game record of 716 points set by Oklahoma in 2008.

• The Bears set an NCAA record with a team pass efficiency rating of 191.2 in 2011; their rating is a whopping 207.1 this year. Baylor also is averaging 13.3 yards per pass attempt and 19.6 yards per completion, which also would set new NCAA records.